Noel O’Brien‘s untitled five-track EP was released on Bandcamp and Soundcloud on 25 May this year. Remarkable so is the low-key nature of such a mature collection of songs from the relatively unknown singer-songwriter. Despite sparse instrumentation, O’Brien makes use of clever musicianship and recording techniques to create an ample, textured sound.

Opening track Yet To Come sets the tone for the remaining four tracks. A moody piece deeply rooted in blues and folk, O’Brien showcases his intricate finger-picking guitar style and his hushed baritone voice, adding only vocal harmonies, minimal percussive sounds and some notes played on a toy piano; all of which is dampened with just a hint of reverb so that the sound is not so much cavernous as it is accommodating, the effect serving as just that rather than as a crutch.

This is a trend that continues on following tracks, For The Future and It’s Not Real; the former a heartfelt ballad marked by a trade off between O’Brien’s double tracked vocal and prayer bell harmonics on it’s chorus, the latter a happy-go-lucky, life affirming effort. These are followed by highlight The Night, which is vaguely psychedelic in it’s use of back-masking in its climactic moments and O’Brien’s sleepy sprechgesang vocal.

The EP sounds off with Reprise which sounds not unlike something sadcore cult figure Mark Kozelek (Red House Painters, Sun Kil Moon) might have written in his bittersweet hey day, with it’s chorused guitar arpeggios and soothing but modest vocal performance.

It’s moody stuff for the most part, best suited for rainy day headphone listening, but no less impressive. O’Brien paints a gloomy but detailed picture on a dark canvas, and the tracks flow well. A very impressive debut from an as of yet elusive figure.